Shadowless skyscraper

More than 250 new skyscrapers are planned to be built in London and this changing skyline might result in casting a lot of shadows on the streets, eventually affecting Londoners.

To prevent this, London architects have designed a pair of corresponding skyscrapers, that combined with each other – minimise this “shadow effect”. It is not magic, but a smart design. Previous attempts to use this technology, where one building acts like a mirror and reflects light, was used in the famous Walkie Talkie skyscraper. Unfortunately, it appeared being an unsuccessful project making the headings of international newspapers as a powerful ‘melting car weapon’. A more rewarding example would be a town in Norway that took a challenge and applied 56- foot light reflectors that shed sunlight where the surrounding mountains cast shadows. In the first case, the heat generated from the reflection was far too strong and it seemed out of control. Hopefully architects have learned from this and are now applying necessary changes to recent designs.

The mentioned architectural firm NBBJ has shown extensive experience in the past. It designed several buildings such as Google, Amazon or Microsoft and so we would expect the best possible outcome in future projects.

“The relationship between the sun and shadow is the relationship between the two buildings,” NBBJ’s design director Christian Coop told Wired.